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"My name is Lisa di Antonio Gherardini
Giocondo, though to acquaintances, I am known simply as Madonna Lisa.
My story begins not with my birth but a murder, committed the year
before I was born…"

Florence, April 1478:
The handsome Giuliano de' Medici is brutally assassinated in Florence's
magnificent Duomo. The shock of the murder ripples throughout the great
city, from the most renowned artists like Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo, to a wealthy wool merchant and his extraordinarily
beautiful daughter, Madonna Lisa.

More than a
decade later, Florence falls under the dark spell of the preacher
Savonarola, a fanatic who burns paintings and books as easily as he
sends men to their deaths. Lisa, now grown into an alluring woman,
captures the heart of Giuliano's nephew and namesake. But when
Guiliano, her love, meets a tragic end, Lisa must gather all her courage
and cunning to untangle a sinister web of illicit love, treachery, and
dangerous secrets that threatens her life.

Set against the drama of 15th Century Florence, I, Mona Lisa
is painted in many layers of fact and fiction, with each intricately
drawn twist told through the captivating voice of Mona Lisa herself.

In 17th-century Persia, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be
married within the year. But when her beloved father dies, she and her
mother find themselves alone and without a dowry. With nowhere else to
go, they are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman
has woven to pay for their journey to Isfahan, where they will work as
servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the
legendary Shah Abbas the Great.

Despite her lowly station, the young woman blossoms as a brilliant
designer of carpets, a rarity in a craft dominated by men. But while her
talent flourishes, her prospects for a happy marriage grow dim. Forced
into a secret marriage to a wealthy man, the young woman finds herself
faced with a daunting decision: forsake her own dignity, or risk
everything she has in an effort to create a new life.

"Anita Amirrezvani has written a sensuous and transporting first
novel filled with the color s, tastes and fragrances of life in
seventeenth-century Isfahan...Amirrezvani clearly knows and loves the
ways of old Iran, and brings them to life with the cadences of a skilled
story-spinner." -- Geraldine Brooks, author of March

"An engrossing, enthralling tale of a girl's quest for self-determination in the
fascinating other world that was seventeenth-century Iran." -- Emma Donoghue,
author of Touchy Subjects and Life Mask

Here is a small fact-- you are going to die. 1939. Nazi Germany. The
country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a
nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her
parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals
books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street
when the bombs begin to fall.

A decade after the publication of this hugely popular international bestseller, Picador
releases the tenth anniversary edition of The Red Tent.

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour
within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that tell of her father, Jacob,
and his twelve sons.

Told in Dinah's voice, Anita Diamant imagines the traditions and turmoils of ancient
womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of the
mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the four wives of Jacob. They
love Dinah and give her gifts that sustain her through childhood, a
calling to midwifery, and a new home in a foreign land. Dinah's story
reaches out from a remarkable period of early history and creates an
intimate connection with the past.

Deeply affecting, The Red Tent combines rich storytelling with a
valuable achievement in modern fiction: a new view of biblical women's
lives.

Here is a small fact-- you are going to die. 1939. Nazi Germany. The
country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier. Liesel, a
nine-year-old girl, is living with a foster family on Himmel Street. Her
parents have been taken away to a concentration camp. Liesel steals
books. This is her story and the story of the inhabitants of her street
when the bombs begin to fall.

I really enjoyed Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet by Jamie Ford. It's about a young Chinese boy during World War 2 who befriends a Japanese girl right before the Japanese are taken to internment camps. It goes back and forth between his childhood during ww2 and his present day life in the 1980's. It's a short read, 290 pages, but very good.

Send me email updates about messages I've received on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.
By signing up, you certify that you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
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